JOEL MICHAEL, PhD

Joel Michael, PhD
Department of Molecular Biophysics & Physiology
Rush Medical College
Rush University Medical Center
1750 W. Harrison St.
Chicago, IL 60612
312.942.6426 (v)
312.942.8711 (f)
jmichael@rush.edu

My CV

The focus of my research is on how students learn science, most specifically physiology, and how teachers can best help students learn. Two broad projects are underway.

Learning and understanding physiology

What does it mean to “understand” physiology? What are the obstacles to students achieving an acceptable level of understanding? How can teachers assist students acquire an understanding of physiology? How can we determine whether students understand physiology? These are some of the questions that frame my educational research.

Some of the specific issues that I have pursued include: (1) the prevalence of student misconceptions in respiratory and cardiovascular physiology, (2) the efficacy of student laboratories as a vehicle for correcting student misconceptions, (3) active learning, and (4) what makes physiology hard for students to learn. The latest issue being pursued is how to test students' conceptual understanding of physiology.

Many aspects of my work are summarized and discussed in:

Michael, J. A. and Modell, H. I. (2003). Active learning in secondary and college science classrooms: A working model for helping the learner to learn. Mahwah NJ: Erlbaum Associates. (http://www.erlbaum.com)

Recent papers about student misconceptions include:

Michael, J. A. (1998). Students' misconceptions about perceived physiological responses. American Journal of Physiology, 274, (Advances in Physiology Education, 19), S90-S98. Available at http://advan.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/274/6/S90

Michael, J. A. et al. (1999). Undergraduate students' misconceptions about respiratory physiology. American Journal of Physiology, 277, (Advances in Physiology Education, 22), S127-S135. Available at http://advan.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/277/6/S127

Michael, J. A. et al. (2002). Undergraduates' understanding of cardiovascular phenomena. Advances in Physiology Education, 26, 72-84. Available at http://advan.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/26/2/72

Michael, J. (2002). Misconceptions - what students think they know. Advances in Physiology Education, 26, 5-6. Available at http://advan.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/26/1/5/

Modell, H., Michael, J., and Wenderoth, M. P. (2005). Helping the learner to learn: The role of uncovering misconceptions. American Biology Teacher, 67, 20-26.

Recent papers about repairing misconceptions in the student laboratory include:

Modell, H. I., Michael, J. A. et al. (2000). Helping undergraduate repair faulty mental models in the student laboratory. Advances in Physiology Education, 23, 82-90. Available at http://advan.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/23/1/S82

Modell, H. I., Michael, J. A., Adamson, T., and Horwitz, B. (2004). Enhancing active learning in the student laboratory. Advances in Physiology Education, 28, 107-111. Available at http://advan.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/28/3/107

Recent papers on active learning include:

Michael, J. A. (2001). In pursuit of meaningful learning. Advances in Physiology Education, 25, 145-158. Available at http://advan.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/25/3/145

Michael, J. A. (2004). Mental models and meaningful learning. Journal of Veterinary Medical Education, 31, 1-5.

Michael, J. (2006). Where’s the evidence that active learning works? Advances in Physiology Education 30, 159-167. Available at http://advan.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/30/4/159

Michael, J. (2007). Faculty perceptions about barriers to active learning. College Teaching 55, 42-47.

What makes physiology hard for students to learn:

Michael, J. (2007). What makes physiology hard for students to learn? Results of a faculty survey. Advances in Physiology Education 31, 34-40. Available at http://advan.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/31/1/34

Conceptual assessment in physiology:

Michael, J. (in press). Conceptual assessment in the biological sciences: A National Science Foundation-sponsored workshop. Advances in Physiology Education.

Work in this area has been carried out in collaboration with members of the Physiology Educational Research Consortium (PERC), a group of approximately 12 physiologists across the country who teach in institutions ranging from community colleges to research universities to medical schools. Members of PERC carry out research and engage in a variety of faculty development activities. You can learn more about PERC at our website, http://www.physiologyeducation.org.

One-On-One Tutoring

Solving problems, like any skill, requires practice with appropriate feedback. How do students learn to solve problems about the baroreceptor reflex (CIRCSIM problems)? How do tutors interact with students learning to solve such problems in a one-on-one interaction? We have accumulated a library of transcripts of one-on-one tutoring sessions and have derived rules defining the tactics and strategies used by tutors. These rules have been implemented in a “smart” computer tutor (CIRCSIM-Tutor) that carries out a natural language dialogue with students solving these same problems. Details of the analysis of one-on-one tutoring and of the implementation of the computer tutor are available in Evens, M. and Michael, J. (2006). One-On-One Tutoring By Humans and Computers. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. (http://www.erlbaum.com)

Work is continuing on this project with analyses of the use of analogies in tutoring with the goal of providing CIRCISM-Tutor with the ability to use this pedagogical tool in the appropriate circumstances. We are also developing an authoring tool for creating additional programs that utilize a prediction table (like CIRCSIM, GASP, and ABASE).

This work has been carried out in collaboration with Dr. Martha Evens, Department of computer Science, Illinois Institute of Technology with funding from the Office of Naval Research. More about the CIRCSIM-tutor project is available at http://www.csam.iit.edu/~circsim.

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